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This blog post summarises a recent roundtable discussion that sheds light on an aspect of administrative justice in action in everyday life: the participation of young people in resolving disputes with local authorities about their special educational needs and disabilities (SEND) support needs. The full report of the roundtable discussion is available to download here and for viewing … Continue reading →

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The proposal for an access to justice audit of ODR is an important call and its motivating rationale is one with which I sympathise, writes Joe Tomlinson of Sheffield University and the Public Law Project. 41 more words via Measuring to know and measuring to manage: an ODR access to justice audit — Law, Technology and … Continue reading →

A new publication, Responsive Legality: The new administrative justice by Dr Zach Richards (Keele University), explores the legal and moral values underpinning public decision-making in the 21st century. Zach is the winner of the UKAJI New Voices award, presented at the New Voices in Administrative Justice workshop at the University of Sheffield in September 2017. Responsive Legality is an … Continue reading →

Two books of interest to the administrative justice community have recently been published. Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment by Michael Adler subjects benefit sanctions in the UK to a critique from the perspective of administrative justice. Nobody’s Law: Legal Consciousness and Legal Alienation in Everyday Life by Marc Hertogh examines legal consciousness and, through empirical … Continue reading →

By Maurice Sunkin In December 2017, the UK Administrative Justice Institute (UKAJI) reached the end of its first phase, which began in September 2014 with funding from the Nuffield Foundation. Since the start of 2018, with support from the University of Essex School of Law, UKAJI has continued to support and grow the administrative justice … Continue reading →

By Nick O’Brien Nick O’Brien reviews a new book by Naomi Creutzfeldt on her study exploring national differences in complainants’ levels of trust in ombuds. In her timely new book, Ombudsmen and ADR: A Comparative Study of Informal Justice in Europe, Naomi Creutzfeldt (University of Westminster) shows that ‘the relationships people have with the informal … Continue reading →

Today the UK Parliament’s Joint Committee on Human Rights publishes a damning report on the Home Office’s treatment of two members of the Windrush generation who were wrongfully detained and whose cases reflect, in the views of the Committee, what was ‘in all likelihood a systemic failure’. By Margaret Doyle The Joint Committee on … Continue reading →

In this blog post. Lauren Cooper discusses her research on agency and fairness in the asylum process and the strategies used by asylum seekers, based on ethnographic observations of tribunal hearings. By Lauren Cooper Justice. Everyone recognises the word, yet the meaning is often contested. Dictionary definitions indicate ‘fairness’ and ‘reasonableness’, but it is rarely … Continue reading →

In our Research Roadmap published in February of this year, UKAJI cited the roll-out of Universal Credit (UC) as an example of the extraordinary impact of administrative justice on the day-to-day lives of people. In this blog post, we consider the recent report by the National Audit Office (NAO) on its independent review of UC, … Continue reading →

This week is the one-year anniversary of the fire at Grenfell Tower. The fire led to the deaths of 72 people; it has been called a tragedy and a preventable mass fatality, both terms implying different degrees of accountability of public bodies. We have learned much over the past year about the causes of the … Continue reading →

Researchers exploring the effect of complaints on public-sector staff are seeking examples of ‘what works’ for a Model Document. Carolyn Hirst and Chris Gill Chris Gill has already posted a note of the conference which took place at Queen Margaret University on 5 December 2017, at which our research on the findings of a small … Continue reading →

Researchers from the University of Essex are exploring the design of a new public-sector ombud in conjunction with the Jersey Law Commission. By Andrew Le Sueur and Margaret Doyle Background The current project has had a long gestation. In 2000, the Review Panel on Machinery of Government in Jersey (chaired by Sir Cecil Clothier) recommended … Continue reading →

‘What is administrative justice?’ is one of the pages on our website most viewed by visitors. At UKAJI, we’ve spent a lot of time thinking about the answer to this question – and, more importantly, why it matters. We’ve developed a range of resources to help illuminate what we know and understand about administrative justice … Continue reading →

‘You would be surprised how often the just society, the good life, human happiness, call it what you will, is pushed out of our reach, not by the malevolence of some people, usually referred to as ” they,” who are consciously depriving us of it, or by the inertia of those to whom we entrust … Continue reading →

Transparency, accountability and the role of internal review – key administrative justice design considerations – feature in proposed changes to the way the Parole Board makes decisions. The Worboys case, heard in the High Court on 13-14 March 2018, is the first time a victim has challenged a Parole Board decision. Two victims of the … Continue reading →

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